From Platform Problems to Performance Gains: HighByte's Website Evolution

What happens when 70% of your pipeline comes from an underperforming website?

Either you transform your site, or your growth stagnates. And we all know the saying: if you aren’t growing, you’re dying.

That’s the struggle HighByte found themselves facing in 2024. Instead of resigning themselves to the challenges of an outdated, poorly platformed website, they took the plunge and underwent a massive digital transformation.

The results? Better site performance, top-notch branding, and an internal rallying cry that motivated their entire team. 

I sat down with CMO Torey Penrod-Camba to get the full story. 

Who Is HighByte?

HighByte is an industrial software company that specializes in Industrial DataOps solutions, helping manufacturers unlock and leverage their operational data. Their flagship product, HighByte Intelligence Hub, is an edge-native platform that enables companies to collect, model, and deliver industrial data across enterprise applications without requiring complex coding. 

HighByte’s Transformational Journey

Kevin: Torey, before you hired Lean Labs, what challenges were you facing? 

Torey: Before we engaged with Lean Labs, our greatest issue with the site was its overall performance. We were platformed on a site that was fine when we first started the company, but as we grew and became more sophisticated, we had to think about how to grow our brand presence over time and ensure that we're ranking for the right keywords. 

How do we ensure we have a site that's easily maintainable by our internal team while still looking perfectly polished externally? How do we incorporate an account center, a knowledge base, and other elements that are going to be so important to our users? And we were not on the right platform in order to achieve that. 

That's why we reached out to Lean Labs. 

Kevin: All right, cool. But I’m sure you were not immediately thinking, “we have this problem, Lean Labs is the solution.” What was the process you went through to learn about Lean Labs?

Torey: We arrived at selecting Lean Labs through a pretty detailed process. We did end up writing an RFP, which I know for some agencies is not the most exciting thing to receive in the inbox. But the RFP was as much for us as it was for the agency that we were going to work with. 

For us, that meant really articulating what we wanted to get out of the site and documenting the performance issues we knew we had and setting very specific goals of what we wanted to achieve in the timeline and the budget that we were going to be, you know, aiming to achieve those in. 

Once we had the RFP, we went into the HubSpot marketplace because we were pretty confident we wanted to build on the HubSpot content hub. So, we started there looking for recommendations within the marketplace and then eventually reached out to our customer success rep as well, which is who referred us to Lean Labs. 

I think what stood out to us about Lean Labs in the process was the level of expertise, the number of projects you had done, and your depth of knowledge over the entire HubSpot platform. So yes, we were specifically in this project looking for a website relaunch, but I think we knew in the back of our heads that this could become a long-term digital partner for us. 

I was looking for someone who also has depth in marketing automation, audits our workflows, helps us with all of our digital and paid marketing programs, and looks overall at our messaging strategy and other backend systems. So, someone who could be with us for this project, and we would kind of use the project as a litmus test, but ultimately, a partner that could help us grow and mature digitally. 

Kevin: That's awesome. What kind of hesitations or concerns did you have going through this process and thinking about hiring a marketing agency or a website team? 

Torey: I think my biggest concerns in selecting a vendor for this process are just the trauma I have gone through in the past of relaunching websites. I think almost every marketer has a tough story of a website relaunch. They're never easy. 

We knew that we were already a team strapped for resources in terms of time and headcount. We also knew that taking on a website relaunch project and onboarding a new agency would be potentially time-consuming. 

Almost every website project I've ever done ends up going over budget and takes twice as long as you think it will. So, I knew we were going to embark upon a really big project and I wasn't entirely sure internally we were ready to do it. Those were really my biggest concerns. Were we going to find the right partner and could they stick to the word of what they said they were going to be able to do? 

Kevin: What did Lean Labs do to allay those fears or curb your concerns and did we pay off on that? 

Torey: I think I was so impressed when we first met with the Lean Labs team because I could tell they had put as much thought into this process as we had. That's like what really stood out to me. Looking at the big picture, the entire Lean Labs team was already pushing us to think bigger picture than what we were initially coming in for. 

So yes, we had the website project, but I think that the entire team already respected where we really wanted to go. Not just with the website, but with our long-term digital marketing strategy. Additionally, I feel like the depth of knowledge, expertise, and meeting everyone on the account that we would be working with daily is a huge piece of it. It's not just the company itself, it's the people that you're gonna be working with day in and day out. 

Immediately, we were incredibly impressed by our account manager. I've worked on both the agency and client sides, and she's probably the most organized, thoughtful account manager I've ever worked with. The entire process from the start was seamless, starting with establishing how we were going to communicate with each other and then following through on that. 

Kevin: Thank you for that. So, if you had to say what the most important factor was that made you choose Lean Labs, what was it? 

Torey: We chose Lean Labs because the most important thing we had to solve was website performance. And after meeting with the Lean Labs team, I was absolutely confident they could help us achieve our goals. And they did. 

I think for, for us, what really drove the selection was the depth of knowledge, the expertise specifically in the HubSpot platform, and then the quality of the people that we were working with on the team day to day, everyone from account side designer developer. 

We experienced top-notch and excellent communication throughout the process. And we were able to launch the website on time, on budget, honestly with a higher polish and better design than I was expecting. We really set out this project to re-platform the site for performance reasons, but what we got out of it was a really beautifully designed site that I'm very proud of and is already yielding great metrics. 

Kevin: It's a little bit early to talk about specific metrics or performance, but have you seen anything since launching from a performance perspective?  

Torey: I think the thing we were just sort of blown away by the most was on day one when we launched the site, our website grader score went from 66 to 85. And I think there's room even for us to continue to improve with some optimizations on Google Tag Manager and other elements of the site that we can continue to refine on our end over time but to just see that immediate attainment of goals on a project was incredibly satisfying on launch day. 

Kevin: That's awesome. Okay, now let's talk about feelings. what has it felt like within the HighByte organization? What has your team said since launching the website? Overall, what has it felt like to launch the website?

Torey: It's felt incredibly rewarding and almost like a rallying cry internally in launching the website. And so I think this has been a unique experience for me. 

I've launched sites in the past, and sometimes a website relaunch can be polarizing. You can have teams that feel very strongly about the core message on a home page or other pages, and there's usually a good degree of pushback, argument, re-review, and too many chefs in the kitchen. 

That didn't happen on this project. I think immediately because of the agile approach that Lean Labs took to development and design, it kind of like took our entire team on this journey of how we were going to upgrade the site over time. First, in phase one and then in phase two. And it was something just our whole company was so, it was so easy for them to get behind. 

Another thing that really helped us is that we incorporated our product team too, so R&D, and working with them too on the way we were going to style the site and incorporate elements of the product deeply into the front-end marketing experience. 

Watching our own internal R&D team work with the designer at Lean Labs and collaborate on this really awesome asset for the company and our customers was so satisfying. 

It has felt like now we have a site we're really proud of and we're excited to send customers there. We're excited to send prospects there. yeah, it's like we grew up overnight. 

Kevin: That’s awesome. What about your personal experience with the project?

Torey: I was very concerned about the bandwidth of our team being able to shepherd this project through to completion. I think what was really helpful was how much Lean Labs was able to step in and do [for us]. 

The organization of everything was there, everything from, know, the 401 redirect mapping to SEO metadata. It was all of those little details that I was worried were going to be so time-consuming that were already thought of for us. 

When we committed to internal timelines for review, we had to stick to them. Just knowing that schedule ahead of time and then seeing frequent communications on Slack, “how are we tracking this week? Where are we ahead? Where are we behind?” It was really helpful. And I think that's how we were able to launch on time and on budget. 

Kevin: If you had to pick out your favorite part about working with Lean Labs on this project, what would it be?

Torey: My favorite part of working with Lean Labs was the team. The day-to-day communication and then ultimately what that team was able to yield, was just phenomenal. 

I've never had a website project go this smoothly before. And in fact, throughout the project, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I kept thinking, “Okay, when is this project going to fall apart?” And it just didn't. It went really smoothly. So yeah, my favorite part is just working with the team. It's great working with a partner that you feel like you can really trust and as an extension of your team. 

Kevin: Thank you for that. Finally, do you have any advice for CMOs, founders, CEOs, or other executives planning a website relaunch? 

Torey: My advice for CMOs is to ask themselves, how important is your website to your business? For us, 70 % of our marketing source pipeline was coming from the website. That website was severely in need of platforming and had real search engine optimization issues. So, we knew incrementally if we could even improve upon the amount of pipeline that our website was already driving by fundamental platform improvements is a huge lever for our business. 

So, I think the first step was just quantifying, “what does the website mean to our business?” and then sitting down across departments and making sure that we had buy-in across the company for what we were going to do. And then the third step is the RFP process. 

Whether you use that [RFP document] externally with agencies when you're looking for a partner or not, having the RFP documented internally helped us clarify and align on the project's goals, what we were hoping to achieve, and the timeline, budget, and details. Once we had cross-departmental approval of that RFP, I knew the rest was going to be seamless as long as we could choose the right partner to work with. 

And that's where Lean Labs came into play. 

So that would be my advice. Do the planning internally first, and really think through what you want to get out of this project, and then find the right partner that will help fill in the gaps of what you've identified in the RFP. 

Kevin: Awesome. Thank you so much for your time, Torey! Our team has loved working with HighByte. And this website relaunch is just the beginning of your journey! I’m excited to build upon the success we’ve already had. 

Torey: That sounds great. Thank you, Kevin. 

Interview with Sarah Paine

Kevin: So Sarah, when you started thinking about your website, what challenge was the business facing? What problems were you looking to solve? 

Sarah: Some of the challenges that we were facing with our website were poor SEO, the design had become stale. We had some technical issues that we were trying to solve on the backend that lacked critical functionality that we needed, that kind of stuff. There was a plethora of issues that just kept compounding. And we knew that if we didn't use this time now to re-platform and redesign, it was going to end up being a bigger lift in the future. 

Kevin: What were the steps to finding who you would work with to solve these challenges? How did you validate them? And why did you choose Lean Labs? 

Sarah: When we first started the project, we decided to go through an RFP process to find the right partner for the project. we decided to go with Lean Labs because of the confidence that we initially had in them right from the very beginning. Lean Labs replied to the RFP in a way that no one else did. They understood our business. And it wasn't necessarily what we had specifically asked for in the RFP. They took their own spin on it, which is something that we appreciated. And they really showed us that they knew what they were talking about and that they would be able to meet our needs. 

Kevin: What do you think were the most important factors that you were looking for when you chose a provider? 

Sarah: The most important factor for us when choosing a partner for this project was fit. Are they going to be a good fit? Can we turn this into a long-term partnership? Because that's really what we're looking for. Are they going to be efficient? Are we going to have transparency in this partnership? 

It was less about whether they were capable of doing the work. We knew Lean Labs was capable of doing the work. We established that through the RFP process. But when it came down to selecting a partner, it really came down to who we would enjoy working with and who would help us deliver the best website. 

Kevin: What hesitations did you have entering a project like this? 

Sarah: I mean, when you think of taking on a project of this size, we went to all of the things that can go wrong. It's such an important project for the company. You always go through, like, if this goes this way, or if we overspend, or if we extend the time period, you always think of what could go wrong. 

One of the things that kind of eased all of those worries or things in the back of your head was that we actually went into this process and instantly trusted Lean Labs. So, it made the project a lot less stressful than it could have been. 

Kevin: Now, let's talk about post-implementation. What gains or wins have you seen?

Sarah: Now that the website is live, the team is so excited because we've been talking about it for almost two years. now that it's actually here, it almost seems like, I don't want to say a morale boost, but it's like… High Byte is growing. We're able to achieve big things, and the website was one of those big things. And that's like now a milestone in our history. The design and look of the website really show the evolution of High Byte and how far we've come, and employees recognize that even our international partners have reached out to us to compliment us on the website. And yeah, it's been fantastic. 

Kevin: Sarah, what kind of results have you seen just since launching the website a few weeks ago? 

Sarah: Some of the results that we've been receiving post-launch relate to performance. And we took a screen capture of our performance pre-launch and it was not great. It had an overall score of 66 out of 100. And the areas that we were really lacking were in performance, mobile and security. And post-launch, same day, a few hours after launch, we took another snapshot, and our overall score had increased up to an 85, and performance had increased. Mobile had increased. Those issues went away and security, all of those issues went away. So we couldn't be happier. 

Kevin: Can you talk about your personal experience working with Lean Labs throughout this process?

Sarah: Our experience working with Lane Labs has been phenomenal. I look at Lean Labs as an extension of High Byte. The team that we worked with, in particular, was the perfect fit for us. 

Tess, our account manager, is like-minded with me and very detail-oriented and organized. We just worked flawlessly together. Bradley, our developer, was always there when I needed him. We were learning a new platform and he was extremely responsive. 

It was just great. And from a design perspective, Maria did a fantastic job. We were really looking to evolve our brand. And every time she came to us with new concepts for a new page, we had very little feedback. It was like she got us. She read our minds and really helped us take it to the next level without completely redoing our brand. 

We just really enjoy working with the team at Lean Labs. We hope to continue to keep working with them. 

Kevin: I love that. Thanks so much for chatting with me about the project, Sarah!